Working Together
by OhMyKai
Summary: Sasuke was supposed to be training to be a better ninja, and this was the teacher he got? Enough was enough. Time to manipulate his teammates into helping. AU, Super!Team7
1. Perspectives: Sasuke

Sasuke was supposed to be training to be a better ninja, and this was the teacher he got? Enough was enough. Time to manipulate his teammates into helping. AU

**Working Together  
>In Which Sasuke Is Frustrated<br>**

It was a Tuesday, and Sasuke was this close to screaming and tearing out all of his hair.

His lips were chapped and blistering, he was sweaty in all the awkward places, and his shirt was sticking to his back. The air was still and muggy, giving him no respite under the 11 a.m. sun. Even his hair lay flatter than usual, and he kept running his fingers through it to get rid of some of the sweat.

He glanced as his two teammates, one blond, leaning against the railing of the bridge with his head in his hands, and the other, pink-haired, sitting with her eyes closed and her head tilted back.

They had been like this for the past two hours.

"Okay!" he exclaimed suddenly, he voice unexpectedly loud after the long, tired silence. "Enough is enough." He wasn't talking like how Uchiha Sasuke usually talked - which was not at all - but he had never thought he would ever seriously contemplate killing a teacher, either. "I'm going to get an early lunch."

Naruto had lifted his head from his hands and turned towards the sound of his voice, and Sakura was staring at him. She started to say, "But what about-" but Sasuke wouldn't hear of it.

"Kakashi-sensei," he said slowly, pausing for dramatic effect, "can go fuck himself." He relished the sound of the words on his tongue. He started to walk off the bridge, but stopped when he didn't hear movement behind him.

"Well," he said impatiently, "are you guys coming or what?"

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes later found them sitting comfortably in a small restaurant, waiting for their food. There had been a minor fight on where to go to eat, which Sasuke had easily solved by ignoring his teammates and continuing to walk to his favorite diner. His mother had used to take him here when he was small, and he knew the owner quite well.<p>

Naruto and Sakura and been strangely quiet upon arriving at the restaurant, and Sasuke was enjoying the silence. He wasn't, however, enjoying the uneasy looks they both kept exchanging. He supposed it was because of him.

He decided to speak up. "Look. I'm tired of sitting around, waiting for Kakashi-sensei to teach us something." He looked at them expectantly, which looked more like a scowl on his face. "I need to become a stronger ninja, and I'm sure you both want to, too. So I propose we work together."

This wasn't a split second decision on Sasuke's part. The heat wasn't enough to make him willingly talk to both Naruto and Sakura. No, he had thought long and hard about this. He no longer had any family to teach him anything, and any family scrolls left were still too advanced for him, as much as he hated to admit it. The Academy had taught him little to nothing, and now their genin teacher was proving to be just as useless. It had only been a week since they'd passed the bell exam, but he didn't get the idea that Kakashi would start teaching them anything any time soon. Sadly, Naruto and Sakura were the only two people he had left. They were the only people he currently knew who might be able to share with him new skills.

And he was confident they would agree with his idea, because, quite frankly, he knew they didn't have anyone else to turn to, either.

Naruto and Sakura looked at each other again, and, after a short hesitation, Sakura said, "Okay, what do you want to do?"

Sasuke smirked to himself. He would probably be done with them in a week, because he figured they wouldn't know much he didn't already know. But until then, he would do his best to squeeze them dry.

* * *

><p>Another fifteen minutes, and they were headed back to wait for Hatake Kakashi. He probably still wasn't there, but the three genin agreed that there was no need to purposefully piss their teacher off<p>

Their server at the restaurant had made a brief commotion about having to serve Naruto (maybe Naruto had pranked the man?), but Sasuke had glared him into submission. He didn't have time for such nonsense – he was trying to be a ninja, damnit, and he was hungry.

After the serve had left, they had settled into their food, Naruto sniffing his sandwich suspiciously before trying it. They discussed only briefly what they wanted to do, planning to talk more the next morning. They were going to share their strengths and weaknesses (Sasuke would have to think about what his weaknesses were), figure out what each person could contribute to the team, and then plan a training regimen accordingly.

And now they were headed back to the bridge, Team 7's meeting place. So far, they hadn't accomplished much, but Naruto hadn't been _too _obnoxious and had actually been listening, and Sakura hadn't been fawning over him as much as usual, and had actually had a few intelligent things to contribute. He knew her forehead was big for a reason.

It was a Tuesday, and Sasuke was feeling more optimistic than he had all week.


	2. Perspectives: Sakura

**Working Together  
>In Which Sakura Has A Mission<br>**

Sakura was having a good day.

Not in the sense that she had spent the afternoon shopping and laughing with friends, or that she had won the lottery. Rather, after the day's events, she felt accomplished, secure, and very full of purpose about the future. She now had a mission.

The morning had started out normal enough, too hot to even try flirting with Sasuke – although of course her hair and makeup were both perfect – and waiting for her sensei to arrive. Thereafter, they would complete an easy mission or two, and then go their separate ways. After being rejected by Sasuke, Sakura either went home, out with a few friends (not usually), or to the library.

Today, however, had been different.

Almost two hours into waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show up, Sakura had been dozing off when Sasuke-kun spoke up. This was a very rare occurrence, without provocation from Naruto, so Sakura had immediately woken herself and paid attention.

Anyway, Sasuke had pretty much asked her to lunch with him, even if Naruto had to tag along. The food had actually been very good, and Sakura made sure to note that Sasuke asked for extra tomatoes on his sandwich.

Then her crush had started talking more about pooling their knowledge and skills together in order to become better ninja.

When she had mentioned sharing information about their strengths and weaknesses, hoping to please him, Sasuke had looked right at her and nodded thoughtfully.

Sakura's brain started working faster. What had caused his change in attitude towards her?

Naruto had then yelled something that gave her an idea – she forgot exactly what it was that he said – and she suggested spending the time they waited for Kakashi in the mornings before missions physically exercising and practicing their taijutsu instead of just sitting around. Sasuke had actually _smiled _at her. Sakura had never seen him smile, ever, and it was at her!

And then Sakura's mind went into overdrive.

What if Sasuke didn't actually pay attention to girls with long hair and pretty faces, but to girls who was also a strong kunoichi?

This changed everything! Sakura now knew what she had to do.

Now, stepping into her small apartment and out of the boiling heat, Sakura planned to be busy.

Sakura lived alone in her small apartment, and had for the past three years. It suited her just fine. She used to live with her parents in a house in the civilian district, but then her parents had died. They had been traveling to Suna with a group of merchants and had been killed in a bandit attack. Sakura hadn't been with them, instead staying with Ino and her family in their compound for the week. When Ino's father had broken the news to her, his voice soft and his face grave, Sakura had called him a liar and burst into tears.

Three years had passed since then, and she realized she could barely remember her parents' faces anymore.

Sakura had lived with her aunt in Suna for six months after that. She had not wanted to go, and made that fact clear to her aunt the whole time she lived there. After months of arguments and screaming and prepubescent rebellion on Sakura's part, her aunt had had enough and contacted the Hokage.

The Sandaime agreed to sponsor Sakura on the condition that she return to the Academy and later become a ninja. However, training to be a ninja also meant that she was no eligible for foster care, and nor could she return to the orphanage. Ino's family would have been willing to take her in, but their clan had very strict rules about keeping everything in the family. So, Sakura got her own apartment in the ninja district. The money her parents left her, including the money she got from selling their house, combined with a monthly stipend from the Hokage meant that she was left with a comfortable apartment, and enough money for food, bills and some extra for spending money.

When she had rejoined the Academy, Ino was the only real friend she still had. And while Sakura had been gone, Ino had found an obsession, an obsession she had wanted to tell Sakura all about.

And Sakura, feeling very alone and depressed and without purpose had latched onto the same obsession. Uchiha Sasuke.

And that obsession had gone nowhere for the past three years.

Plus, she didn't have many friends, not really. She and Ino were always fighting over Sasuke nowadays, and that she was still shy and a bit of a know-it all and a teacher's pet and a fan girl and had a bit of a bad temper didn't really do much for making friends.

Actually, that all made her sound pretty terrible.

But now she had a plan. To help make him a better ninja, and become a better ninja herself.

And Naruto would become better in the process, too, she guessed.

So when Sakura stepped into her bedroom, she looked into her mirror, took a deep breath, and put her hair into a tight ponytail. Then she found a notebook and pen, sat at her kitchen table, and started making lists.

The first list was what she had to accomplish that day, the second was a list of ideas she had to improve her team, and the third was a weekly food schedule she would immediately start following.

As soon as she finished her lists, she got up to leave, not wanting to waste any time. She still had a lot to do today; grocery shopping, get a haircut, stop at the library, and probably more, because she would probably come up with more ideas as she went along.

As she turned off the lights and locked the door, she smiled. A lot would change, now that she planned to be a kick-ass kunoichi.


	3. Perspectives: Naruto

**Working Together**  
><strong>In Which Naruto Wants to be Awesome<strong>

Naruto's feet scuffed up the dust and dirt on his kitchen floor as paced around his apartment, waiting for his ramen to finish.

The Uzumaki's life hadn't changed much over the years. He still had the same apartment, same food, same clothes, and same general lack of friends. He could count the people he trusted on one hand, and all of them tended to be rather busy people. Teuchi-san and Ayame-chan had been around for as long as he could remember, but they had a business to run. Hokage-jiji tended to be busy for rather obvious reasons. And Iruka-sensei both taught the Academy students and organized mission files in the Hokage Tower.

That had left the blond genin with a great deal of time to himself throughout his childhood, which usually ended in chaos and bright colors.

But now he had two offers of friendship. Well, that's how he was looking at it, anyway. He realized that Sasuke-teme might just want the training and Sakura-chan wanted to make Sasuke-teme happy, but this way they'd be spending a lot more time together and he had the chance to show them how awesome he actually was.

Not to be conceited or anything, but people tended to like him. If they didn't have any preconceived ideas about him, anyway. Any times he had left the village, he had gotten along famously with most people he had talked to.

People by themselves were rather intelligent, but put them in a group, or worse, in a big village together, add some rumors to the mix, and you could end up with a rabid mob or five, with opinions exaggerated and logic lost in the distance.

Speaking of, Naruto would kill to know who started the rumor that he was gay. Wearing orange didn't make him _flaming, _damnit.

His restless feet brought him to stand in front of the stove seconds before his ramen finished. As he settled at his kitchen table with a steaming bowl in front of him, he came back to his main concern.

Should he tell his teammates about the huge-ass fox living in his stomach?

The night he had learned of the demon in his stomach, Hokage-jiji had explained that he could tell whoever he wanted about the Kyuubi, but he had also recommended discretion. He wanted to trust his teammates and be trusted in return, and to benefit from this training as much as possible while he was at it. But he couldn't so easily forget his teammates usual contempt of him. It was obvious to him with Sasuke's dismissive attitude and Sakura's constant rejections that he wasn't exactly the favorite ninja on the team.

Honestly, being a genin so far wasn't really what he had been expecting. A dysfunctional team, D-ranked missions up the yin-yang, and pretty much no team training.

Naruto slurped up the rest of the broth and burped happily. Things could be different from now on, if he tried hard enough. He'd wait a week and decide from there if he wanted to tell them.

* * *

><p>The three genin of Team Seven sat in a circle on their bridge, looking at each other awkwardly. Naruto couldn't really help staring at Sakura-chan. She looked really different this morning. Her clothes were the same, but her hair was in a messy bun; on closer inspection, he realized her hair was being held up by two senbon. He blinked in surprise. She looked so different, with her hair like that and the serious expression on her face. Somehow, this wasn't the same cute Sakura-chan he knew, and he wasn't sure he liked it.<p>

"Well, should I start?" Naruto asked, easily breaking the somewhat tense silence. Sakura-chan seemed distracted by some papers in her hands, and Sasuke-teme was never one to spark up a conversation.

Sakura-chan nodded in agreement. "We'll do that first, then I have some ideas for a basic training schedule for us."

Naruto couldn't quite keep the surprise off his face, and it seemed Sasuke-teme couldn't either. Sakura-chan really was taking this whole idea pretty seriously.

He fumbled for his words for a moment, then started. "Well, my main strengths are my chakra levels, stamina, um, and stealth I guess. I'm okay at both taijutsu and kenjutsu, mostly because I can take a good hit. Let's see..." He paused in thought. "I know the Academy jutsus, plus my Oiroke no Jutsu and my favorite, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Sasuke-teme interrupted him, "I thought you couldn't do Bunshin no Jutsu. Isn't that why you failed in the first place?"

Naruto waved off the question. "I can do the jutsu if I make like at least 100 clones. Doesn't matter, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is more kickass anyway. Anyway, where was I? Um. The things that I'm worst at is genjutsu and my chakra control. I don't know much about either, I guess. And I think that's everything. Oh wait, I guess I'm alright at tracking, too."

Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme gave similar spiels, following his general format. Only two things surprised him - Sakura-chan knew a fair amount about cryptology, and Sasuke-teme had made himself immune to several different kinds of poisons.

"Sasuke," Sakura-chan said, surprising her two male teammates once again. No Sasuke-kun? "How do you activate your Sharingan? It would be a big asset to both you and the team."

Sasuke-teme went into an explanation, but Naruto wasn't really listening. Is this what having a team was supposed to be like? They had already talked more this morning than they had all week.

Sakura-chan shifted to lean against the railing of the bridge, and Naruto decided to listen up again.

"Okay, listen," she started, then paused. "Okay, so, I don't really know how to say this. I want to be a better kunoichi now. I realize I didn't work as hard as I could have in the Academy, but I'm a genin now, and that should mean something. And, well, I don't really have anyone else, and I don't think you guys do, either." She looked back and forth between them, rather nervously, Naruto thought. "None of us have families, and none of us with many close friends, I think. Kakashi-sensei is next to useless. So, I want to get serious, for real this time. We're _ninja,_" she said, emphasizing the word. "I think we need to work together, and take advantage of every opportunity and use every trick we can. And we'll show everyone." She gave a tight grin, relaxing as she saw both of her teammates smiling and nodding back at her.

Naruto thought the smile on Sasuke-teme's face seemed out of place, but his own smile was completely genuine. This was gonna be _awesome_.


	4. Training Ideas: Hey, Guys

**Working Together**

**Training Ideas: Hey, Guys.**

"Hey, guys. I have an idea."

A week had passed, but not much had been accomplished. Team 7 had decided to focus on the basics, which they had deliberated over and agreed were taijutsu and chakra control. All three of them had progressed to some extent, but all three also thought it wasn't good enough.

At Sakura's comment, the two boys of their team stopped sparring to look at their pink-haired teammate, who made a rather silly image with an open book in her hands and a leaf stuck to her forehead with chakra.

"The Sharingan is activated when the user is under great stress or feels their life is threatened, right? Well, since I think it's something we need to practice anyway, why don't we see if killing intent could activate the doujutsu?"

"What's killing intent again?" Naruto asked, who thought the term sounded familiar.

"You know when Kakashi-sensei does that creepy stare thing?" Sakura clarified, "That's killing intent. It's focused chakra combined with emotions that you project upon another person."

She briefly explained how it was done according to the book she had read, then decided she wanted to try it out first, claiming because it was her idea. She brought her hands up in the ram seal, the leaf falling from her forehead, and she closed her eyes.

"Great, that means I get to be the test subject, right?" Sasuke muttered.

Naruto, as the observer, saw only Sakura's eyes shooting open and Sasuke going completely still. After a few moments, Sakura looked away and Sasuke let out a quick breath of air, as though he had been holding it in.

"Well?" Naruto said impatiently, looking back and forth between the two.

"It...wasn't quite right," Sasuke said, "Not how Kakashi does it. It was as though...well, it was effective, at least, just not for activating my Sharingan."

Sakura was staring at him intently, surprised at the hesitance in his voice. "Well, what was it like, then?"

Sasuke paused to find his words. "It was as though...I'd never be happy again. As though I was alone and no one would ever be able to find me. And it felt like I couldn't move, that was the same as Kakashi's." He opened his mouth to say more, but hesitated again and fell silent.

Sakura seemed concerned for him, but also looked rather pleased at her first attempt.

Naruto just sat back on his heels, saying, "Well, my turn then, right?"

Sasuke just grunted, which the blond-haired boy took as a yes, so Naruto copied Sakura in holding his hands in the ram seal and closing his eyes. He took longer to concentrate before trying, to the point that Sasuke was starting to look around disinterestedly and Sakura was glancing at her book, before there was a sudden rush of _power_ coming from Naruto.

Sasuke and Sakura both froze, the book falling from the girl's hands, completely unable to react to the pure hatred coming off of the blond. An eternity passed in less than ten seconds, until Naruto released them and opened his eyes again. He glanced around, only to see his shocked female teammate, her mouth a little 'o' of surprise, and Sasuke staring at him with his now bright-red eyes, which were wide open.

Naruto, not wanting to admit to his two uninformed teammates that the Kyuubi had suddenly overwhelmed him when he had starting focusing his emotions, and that he had felt very close to losing control, just laughed sheepishly and said, "Well, it worked, right?

xxx

"Hey, guys. It's time I told you the truth about a few things."

Sakura and Sasuke stopped running. Naruto was ten minutes late to their early morning training sessions, and his two teammates had started without him.

The young ninja had delayed coming this morning, wary of the conversation he was about to have.

His teammates were now looking at him curiously, their breathing already back to normal.

"So you know the Kyuubi..." he said, starting out awkwardly. But after a few sentences, he had their complete attention, and training was forgotten until Kakashi arrived.

xxx

"Hey, guys. I've been working on something, and it's about time we test out my ideas."

Sasuke had disappeared for about an hour during their training, making a few vague comments about going to the library. Naruto and Sakura were now experimenting with kage bunshin. They had already tested the limits of Naruto's chakra with his clones (he could make at least a thousand of them!) and so were now testing if they could make a single clone stronger.

The two turned towards Sasuke, happy to have a break, and Sakura quickly tapped out Naruto's last clone.

"What's up?" Naruto said.

"Well, first I need you to swear to not tell anyone else about this." Sasuke regarded both of his teammates seriously.

They both nodded their assent, Naruto rolling his eyes slightly, wondering what kind of secret was bigger than the Kyuubi.

"Just because I'm pretty sure it's illegal," the Uchiha added on, smirking slightly.

Naruto suddenly looked a lot more interested.

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled, sounding scandalized. "What did you do?"

"Well, if you didn't already know, I've been trying to copy techniques whenever I get the chance-"

"Surprise," Naruto muttered.

"-and I was trying to think of a way to help you two pick up the techniques that I'm learning just as quickly as I do."

"How's that?" Sakura asked doubtfully. "And I thought you were going to focus on mastering your most important techniques, not just copying a lot of other ones that you won't be able to use as effectively."

"I am still working on mastering a few techniques, I'm just also copying a lot because I can always master them later," Sasuke said, shrugging. "My point being, I haven't found a perfect solution yet, but this might help."

He herded them into the clearing nearby, facing Naruto with a little distance between them. His hands flipped through seals, calling out, "Kagemane no Jutsu!"

As Sasuke's shadow stretched out to capture Naruto, Sakura exclaimed, "But isn't that a Nara family technique? Sasuke! You could get in a lot of trouble for that! We all could!"

Sasuke just grunted, ignoring her. "And this is a pretty effective, if basic, taijutsu style I saw a chuunin practicing last week, which I obviously copied, and I thought it might suit Naruto." Sasuke slowly went through the stances of the style, Naruto forced to copy him. Both were rather stiff going through the positions, seeing as neither had ever done them before, but their foot positions and balance and everything were all flawless. Sasuke went through all the stances twice before stopping and releasing Naruto.

Sasuke smirked imperiously at his teammate's two thoughtful faces, knowing his idea was a success and that Sakura was sure to think of even more ways to take advantage of his idea.

After a moment, Naruto tried the first stance again by himself, Sakura quietly correcting his hand position, her face still thoughtful.


	5. Missions: D Ranks

**Working Together**

**Missions: D-Ranks**

"Sakura! Knock it off!" Naruto hissed at his teammate, reprimanding her for once instead of the other way around. "They keep staring at us."

"Sorry," the girl said, blushing. "I can't seem to help it."

For the past twenty minutes or so, Sakura had been talking to herself. She stopped when she caught herself doing it or when Naruto started quietly scolding her again, but now it was apparently noticeable enough that their clients kept glancing out the window at her. The muttering wasn't too bad, but she had actually yelled at herself at one point.

A clone was working quietly next to them, digging weeds up from around some petunias. A clone that was, in fact, only quiet because it was Henged to look like Sasuke. A few other Naruto clones were also busy pulling weeds, arguing good-naturedly among themselves. Their real Uchiha teammate was busy inside the house, trying to discreetly copy their clients' daughter's piano practice with his Sharingan. Naruto wasn't sure how Sasuke was doing it without being noticed by anybody in the house, but he was sure as hell planning on forcing the information out of Sasuke later. Maybe he had some kind of invisibility technique?

He snickered as he thought that maybe the occupants of the house were just too busy staring at Sakura to notice Sasuke.

"I just keep having all these good ideas," Sakura continued enthusiastically. "Now that we know how to water walk - well, sort of - I think we should keep practicing by sparring on top of the lake. Then maybe try jumping back and forth from a tree to the lake and back again? Ohh, and we haven't tried water walking on water with currents, we should probably practice that, too. And then there's- oh wait, plus, isn't there a small waterfall on the Aburame lands? I bet that would be a good challenge. And-"

Naruto went back to tuning her out, giving up on getting Sakura to shut her trap. She had been going on and on about seals earlier (even though she had only studied them for two days so far), passed on some gossip about how the other rookie genin teams were doing so far, explained why Sasuke should know how to play the piano, rattled off a great deal of details about some food she saw on sale, and who knows what else.

He realized she was opening up more now that Team 7 was working together so much, and while that was nice, he didn't need to hear _anyone_ talk that much.

* * *

><p>"Would you stop doing that!" Sasuke exclaimed, slapping away Sakura's insistent fingers probing at his side and jumping away.<p>

Sakura stopped her poking. She smoothed out her shirt, seemingly absentminded, saying, "I think you need to work on this technique more, it's not quite consistent."

"Would you both shut up already?" Naruto muttered at them, off to the side. "You're annoying."

Sakura looked at the both of them, hands on her hips. "You both are terrible at this!" she exclaimed, giving up on her cover.

They were on another D-Rank mission, and it was another weird attempt to incorporate their training while they worked. They had decided to practice their Transformation techniques while painting the fence.

"Naruto, I think you're a little too good at pretending to be Sakura," Naruto (Sasuke) said pointedly.

Sasuke (Sakura) went, "Hn," in agreement, in a terrible imitation of the real Sasuke.

"Why are we even doing this, then?" Sakura (Naruto) exclaimed. "I thought-"

Sasuke cut her off. "Look, Naruto, I know we talked about this, and we decided it's a good idea and everything, but this is too weird. Especially after that walk around town. I didn't realize everyone_ stared_ at you so much, Sasuke. Maybe it's something to work on, you know...after puberty. Or something."

There was an awkward pause. The Naruto off to the side commented, "Well, moving on. Naruto, I realized your situation was bad, but I didn't realize _literally every citizen of Konoha seems to hate you_." He punctuated the last part of his sentence by waving his brush in Sakura's face.

The Kyuubi container, disguised in a dress, would have thought her teammate was mocking her if she hadn't heard the undertone of concern in her teammate's voice. "Yeah. Well. I'm used to it, I guess." She stopped and seemed to ponder for a moment. "I still think this is something we should practice, but maybe we should do other people first instead of each other. Might be less weird."

They fell silent and working efficiently for a while, until Sasuke said, "Naruto, did you make my chest bigger?"

There was a release of chakra and a minimal smoke cloud puffed out; there now stood two Naruto's and a Sasuke, both Naruto's nonchalantly painting the fence as though they hadn't heard their teammate.

* * *

><p>"Are you serious?" Sakura's two teammates looked at her in surprise, wondering at unusual outburst. Naruto didn't think it was <em>that <em>bad.

"I'm quite serious, my dear," the Hokage replied candidly, smiling in the face of her animosity.

"We've had to catch that damn cat like 50 times in the past week! Nobody can lose a cat that much!"

"I think the cat enjoys the chase," the old ninja replied thoughtfully, and Sakura stared at him in disbelief as he lit up his pipe.

"C'mon, Sakura, let's go," Naruto said, grabbing her and dragging her out the door, following his dark-haired teammate. He wasn't even sure where their sensei was. He wasn't really around lately, and when he was, his nose was permanently attached to his brightly colored books.

"So what do you think?" Sasuke asked, turning to face them as soon as they got out of the tower.

"Think what?" Naruto replied blankly, trying to follow his train of thought.

"How do you want to train this time?"

"Ah," Naruto replied thoughtfully. As much as possible, they turned D-ranks into training, the Tora-capture missions especially. The last time they had tried to complete the mission while treating the ground as hot lava (he realized it sounded stupid, but it was surprisingly fun), and they had tried capturing the cat with 'enemy ninja' fighting them off. Naruto was pretty sure they had done something else, too, but he couldn't remember at the moment.

"That reminds me," Sakura said, "we really need to work on figuring out some hand signs or something." Oh, right. They'd had another mission in which they decided no verbal communication was allowed, in order to train. The mission took close to 4 hours.

"Let's do the whole thing walking on our hands. Or running, I guess."

Naruto's two teammates stared at him, and he grinned back.

Sasuke sighed. "Hn. First one to catch her wins."

No further convincing was needed, and the team leapt forward.


End file.
